Is That Expensive Bottle of Wine Really a Bottle of Expensive Wine?

In a world of counterfeit handbags and bootlegged movies, is it really surprising that there is now an uprising in counterfeit wine? Bad wine in a fancy bottle can mean tarnished reputations, bad word of mouth and overall loss of sales for small vintners.

In one case, rocker Sammy Hagar (yah, that Sammy Hagar who owns over 10k bottles of wine), was almost scammed into purchasing a case of bogus wine.

"They had broken down some big formats at the chateau, supposedly, rebottled them in and put new labels, new corks, new everything, but those weren't original bottles."

To combat fraud, some wineries are turning towards radio frequency ID chips (so they can track real bottles) and bond paper (the kind of paper stock bonds are made from) to ensure authenticity. However most wineries have not focused on it at all, but since it decreases the value of their real wines, they're starting to look in to it more. Either way it's a difficult one to hunt down, most people will probably never know they got scammed, and those that do usually realize too late.